Machine for operating on soles or other parts of shoes



Jan. 12, 1932. F. E. BERTRAND 1,840,559

MACHINE FOR OPERATING ON SOLES OR- OTHER PARTS OF SHOES Filed July 50, 1926 Patented Jan. 12, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FREDERIG E. BERTRAND, OIE LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOBLTO UNITED SHOE MA- CHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY MACHINE FOR OPERATING ON SOLES OR- OTI-IER- PARTS OF SHOES Application filed m 30,

This invention relates primarily to sole machines and more particularly to trimming mechanisms which may be incorporated in such machines. As herein illustrated, the invention is embodied in a machine by the use of which a reinforcing layer may be fitted and secured to a lipped insole and which includes mechanism for trimming 01f surplus material at the margin of the reinforcing layer. In its broader aspects, however, the invention is not limited to use in sole machines.

United States Letters Patent No. 1,218,561, dated March 6, 1917, and granted on an application of Albert E. Johnson, disclose a machine of a general type which has gone into extended commercial use and which is commonly known as the Economy insole reinforcing machine. The feed rolls of such machines, as heretofore constructed and operated in the manufacture of insoles for shoes, have usually been driven by power through a friction clutch controlled by the operator so that a sole may be fed through the machine at a variable speedfor example, slowly when the toe portion of the sole is being operated upon and rapidly at the more nearly straight portions of the sole margin. However, it has recently been found highly desirable to have the canvas trimming knife run always at its most efficient speed and particularly when'operating at the toe of the sole where the reinforcing material may be puckered or wrinkled. Accordingly in such machines, the knife has been driven continuously and uniformly at a relative high speed while the speed of the feed roller may be varied.

It is one object of the present invention to provide an improved actuating mechanism for a knife, in machines of this general type, by the use of which the durability of certain operating parts will be increased and whereby the removal and replacement thereof and more particularly of the knife will be facili- "ta-ted.

Accordingly, the present invention pro vides means in such machines for readily rendering the knife inoperative by disconnecting it from its driving means independently 1926. Serial No. 125,961.

of the operation of the work feeding means. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention this result is secured by providing a pair of intermeshing gears in the driving connections for the knife, one of said gears being shiftable along its driving shaft from operative position into a position where it is operatively disconnected both from its driving shaft and from its co-operating gear, in combination with a spring which tends normally to move said gear toward operative p0? sition and a stop which is movable into and out of position where it will hold the shiftable gear out of engagement with its co-operating gear against the resistance of said spring. In the preferred construction, the said stop is in the form of a lever provided with a projection engaging the shiftable gear to retain the lever normally in locking position.

In the use of such an improved construction under actual shoe factory conditions, the operator, if she wishes to adjust or replace the trimming knife or to leave the machine for a short time may readily move the shiftable gear into inoperative position, as above indicated, so that the knife will cease rotation and thus avoid wear both of the knife and of the feed roll, which normally co-operates with it, and thus the full efficiency of the trimming elements will be maintained. Moreover, by moving the shiftable gear into operative position, the operator may quickly start the knife up again. Accordingly, this shifting of the gear can be much more easily and conveniently accomplished than throwing oif and on of the belt which transmits power from the main driving shaft.

The features of the present invention above outlined together with other novel combinations and arrangements of parts will now be described in detail in connection with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the preferred embodiment of the invention, and will then be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a rear elevation of the upper portion of an insole reinforcing machine, of

the general type above referred to, embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front sectional elevation of the tools which operate upon the insole and the adjacent parts;

Fig. 3 is a plan View largely in section of the canvas trimming mechanism, and

Fig. 4 is a detail in perspective of the slidable gear and its locking lever. V

Inasmuch as the principal operating parts of the machine herein shown are generally similar to the corresponding parts in the machine disclosed in Letters Patent No. 1,218,561, above referred to, and are also similar in certain other respects to parts of the machine disclosed in aco-pending application of the present applicant, which has now matured as Letters Patent No. 1,726,800, granted September 3, 1929, these parts will be described here only briefly.

The work engaging tools include a pair of feed rolls 20, 22 and a work positioning, or pressure, roll 24 which also functions as a feed roll. As shown in Fig.2 the insole to be operated upon comprises a base S having a rib or lip L to which the reinforcing layer B is fitted and secured tl'irough the action of the rolls. These rolls are mounted respectively upon shafts 26, 28 and 30 which are geared together and driven from a pulley 32 on shaft 28 which in turn is driven by a belt 34. Under usual conditions, these three rolls 20,22, and 24 are positively driven to rotate at substantially the same peripheral speed but the relative speed may be modified to suit different kinds of work and different working conditions. As in the machines disclosed in the two Letters Patent above referred to, the canvas reinforce R is trimmed substantially at the top of the lip L by a disk knife 38 co-operating with the feed roll 22 and carried by a shaft 40 rotatable in bearings in a bracket 42 pivoted to the head of the machine at 44 so that the knife 38 may be swung into and out of operative relation with the feed roll 22. The shaft 40 may be moved to aslight extent longitudinally in its bearings and is surrounded by a spring 46 interposed between a collar 48 fixed to the shaft and a loose Washer 50 engaging one side of one of the bearings for the shaft 40, as shown in Fig. 3, so that the knife 38 is normally held under a light spring pressure against one 3 lateral face of the feed roll 22, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The shaft 40 is driven by a spur gear 52 secured thereto and meshing with an intermediate gear 54 mounted on a stud 55 and meshing in turn with another spur gear 56 having a laterally extending hub 58 slidable upon a shaft 60 which also is mounted in the bracket 42. Apulley 62 secured to the shaft 60 is driven by a belt 64.

As shown in detail in Fig. 4, the slidable gear 56 is provided with a key-way and with a helical surface 7 2 in one side of the gear which surface co-operates with the end of a short key 7 4 fixed to the shaft 60 by a screw 76. It will be observed from Figs. 1

and 3 that the total length of the key 74 is the shaft 60 and the end of the hub 58 tends constantly to hold the key-way 70 in engage ment with the key 7 4 and to maintain gear 56 in engagement with gear 54.

In order that the slidable gear 56 may be moved to the left, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, to disconnect it from the gear 54 and, therefore, from the knife 38, a sleeve having a flange 82 is fixed to the hub 58 and is surrounded by another loose sleeve or member 84 which is adapted to be gripped by the hand of the operator, who may thereby then shift the gear 56 to the left and disconnect it from its companion gear 54. There will be sufiicient friction, at such times, between the end of sleeve 84 and the flange 82 to permit a slight rotation of the sleeve 80 and gear 56 by the operator. Normally, however, such rotation of the gear 56 will be unnecessary be cause the gear 56, after it has been disconnected from the gear 54, will continue to occupy the same relative angular position so that when it is again shifted to the right, its

teeth will come into mesh with the teeth of gear 54.

In order to'retain the gear 56 out of operative relation to gear 54 after the gear 56 has been shifted out of mesh, a stop in the form of a lever 86 is pivoted to the stud 55 outside of gear 54 and is provided with a handle 68 and with a laterally extending portion 90 which is adapted to rest upon an internal annular wall or surface 92 of the gear 56. This projection 90 may conveniently be of a width slightly less than that of the key-way 70.

The two belts 34 and 64 may be driven from a counter shaft (not shown) in the base of the machine in the usual manner. However, it may be explained that this counter shaft may carry three pulleys arranged side by side. viz: in order, a pulley, for the belt 64, fixed to the counter shaft, an intermediate pulley, for the belt 34, loose on the shaft and a third pulley driven by a belt from the factory shafting and keyed to the shaft. Friction washers may be interposed between the intermediate pulley and each of the other two pulleys and a treadle is connected to the third pulley so that the operator by depressing the treadle may force that pulley toward the others and produce frictional engagement between the loose intermediate pulley and each of the others with the result that the intermediate pulley and consequently the shaft 60 may be driven at a variable speed all according to the pressure exerted on the treadle.

In the use of the machine above described the belt 64 and consequently the shaft 60 will be driven continuously at a uniform high speed while the belt 3ft will be driven at a variable speed controlled by the operator. If at any time the operator desires to stop the feed of the work, she may throw out of operation the pulley which drives the belt 3 1 and thus discontinue the feeding of the work. If she wishes to adjust or replace the knife 88 or if she wishes to leave the machine idle, she may throw the knife 38 out of operation by grasping the sleeve 841 and shifting it and the slidable gear 56 to the left, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, against the resistance of spring 7 8 and thus throw the gear 56 out of mesh with its co-operating gear 54. Next the operator may grasp handle 88 and lift lever 86 to its highest position, when the projection 90 will engage the shaft 60, and then she may release the sleeve 84 and the handle 88 whereupon the spring 78 will shift the gear 56 to the right, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, where it will be held by lever 86 out of mesh with the gear 54, the lever being retained in raised position, as shown in Fig. ft, through the engagement of projection 90 with the wall 92.

When the operator wishes to set the trimming mechanism again into operation, she will grasp the sleeve 84 and shift it slightly to the left whereupon the wall 92 will release the projection 90 and lever 86 will drop down to its normal position shown in Fig. 1. The operator will then immediately let go of sleeve 84 whereupon spring 78 will first cause the teeth of the gear 56 to mesh with the teeth of the gear 54: and then the left beveled end 7 5 of key 74, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, will engage the helical surface 72 of the gear 56 and, as the shaft rotates in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 8, the key will travel along the helical surface and finally come into operative engagement with the keyway whereupon the shaft will again drive the gear 56 and, through it, the knife 38 at normal speed.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of United States is:

1. In a machine for operating on soles, the combination of a pair of feed rolls, a disk knife co-operating with one of said rolls with a shearing action to trim material from the sole while the latter is being fed, and separate driving connections from a source of power for rotating said rolls and said knife, said connections to the knife including a pair of intermeshing gears one of which may be shifted into and out of operative engagement with the other at the will of the operator.

2. In a machine for reinforcing soles, the combination of work feeding means including a driven roll, a disk knife cooperating with said roll for trimming reinforcing ma- .terial from the work while the latter is being fed,.means for rotating the knife, and means through which the knife may be rendered inoperative independently of the operation of the feeding means.

3. In a machine for operating on parts of shoes, the combination of work feeding means, mechanism through which said means maybe driven continuously but at variable speeds, aknife for trimming material from the work while the latter is being fed, means for actuating said knife continuously at a uniform speed and independently of said driving mechanism, and means through which the knife may be rendered inoperative independently of the operation of the feeding 5.. In a machine for operating on parts of shoes, the combination of means for feeding work at variable speeds, a knife for trimming material from the work while the latter is being fed, and means for actuating the knife continuously at a uniform speed and independently of the work feeding means including two co-operating members one of which may be shifted into and out of operative engagement with the other at the will of the o erator.

6. n a machine for operating on parts of shoes, the combination of work feeding means including a roll, a knife cooperating with said roll for trimming material from the work while the latter is being fed, means for actuating the knife independently of the work feeding means including two co-operating members one of which may be shifted into and out of operative engagement with the other at the will of the operator, a spring tending to move the shiftable member in one direction, and a lever normally out of engagement with said shiftable member but movable into a position where it will hold the shiftable member out of engagement with its co-operating member against the resistance of said spring while the knife remains in trimming relation to the roll.

7. In a machine for operating on parts of shoes, the combination of work feeding means, a knife for trimming material from the work while the latter is being fed, means for actuating the knife independently of the work feeding means including two co-operating rotary members one of which may be shifted into and out of operative engagement with the other at the will of the operator,

and a rotatable part connected to said shiftable member for axial movement therewith and adapted to be gripped by the hand of the operator and held against rotation while said member may continue to rotate.

8. In a machine for operating on soles, the combination of a pair of feed rolls, a disk knife for trimming material from a sole while the latter is being fed, separate driving connections from a source of power for rotating said rolls and said knife, said connections to the knife including a pair of intermeshing spur gears, a shaft on which one of said gears is slidably mounted, a key and key-way connection between the latter gear and its shaft, a spring tending to move the slidable gear in one direction along its shaft, a member adapted to be gripped by the hand of the operator and held against rotation but being connected to said gear for axial movement therewith, a lever movable into and out of a position where it holds the slidable gear out of operative connection both with its cooperating gear and with its shaft, and a projection upon said lever cooperating with a wall formed by a recess in said slidable gear to retain said lever normally in such locking position.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

FREDERIC E. BERTRAND. 

